Awards

NCTE Advancement of People of Color Leadership Award

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2024 Recipient: Bilal Polson

Northern Parkway Elementary School, NY

Dr. Bilal Polson has served the students, families, and staff of Northern Parkway Elementary School in Uniondale, NY, for over a decade, as assistant principal (2007-2015) and principal (2016-present). Upon graduation from the prestigious LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts, Polson received his undergraduate degree from New York University. He holds advanced degrees in education and educational administration from Adelphi and Hofstra University and a doctoral degree in educational leadership from Hofstra University. Polson has made significant contributions to NCTE. He was one of the founding members of the Professional Dyads in Culturally Relevant Teaching (PDCRT) program (2013-2015), and served as a co-director from 2015-2019. He has served in elected positions within NCTE’s Elementary Section and Early Childhood Education Assembly (ECEA). Polson has also worked to develop teachers of Color as leaders within NCTE; multiple teachers of Color from Northern Parkway who have received NCTE/ECEA scholarships and awards now call NCTE their professional home and serve in NCTE/ECEA leadership positions. Further, he has co-authored NCTE position statements that address retention and professional learning issues that disproportionately impact teachers of Color, including Shifting from Professional Development to Professional Learning (2019) and Elevating Student Voice: The Role and Importance of Literacy Coaches for K–12 Teachers (2020). Polson consistently presents at local and national conferences and co-authors peer-reviewed journal articles, academic position statements, and book chapters. He is the co-editor of Toward Culturally Sustaining Teaching: Early Childhood Educators Honor Children with Practices for Equity and Change (NCTE/Routledge 2020).

Professional literacy educators remind us that we are all learners of language and languages. We are all responsible for reading the world (Friere, 1976) and telling and writing our stories. We guide, coach, and recognize we all have literacy lives and textual and sonic lineages. All learners have a series of books, stories, and songs that we read, tell, or listen to that have significance in shaping our identities (Mahabuti,1990, Tatum, 2009, Muhammad, 2020).

Professional literacy educators remind us that our identities are connected to a large lineage of literacy connected to power, liberation, and ascension for humanity.

The professional literacy educators in my literacy life were my dance teachers, basketball coaches, martial arts sensei, musicians, music producers, writers, and storytellers.

The sonic and textual lineage that guides me comes from songs, books, movies, dances, conversations, and journal writing (Tatum, Craig & Polson).

 

Award Details

The NCTE Advancement of People of Color Leadership Award (APCL), established in 2007 and first presented in 2008, is a special award given to an NCTE member of color who has made a significant contribution to NCTE and the development of our professional community. We remind nominators, nominees, and selection committee members that members of NCTE Conferences—CCCC, CEL, ELATE, LLA, and TYCA—are members, by definition, of NCTE.

Purpose:
To promote and support the advancement of communities of color in the profession and contribute to promoting equity and dismantling racism.

Frequency/Number of Awards:
This award will be bestowed only when the APCL Selection Committee decides a nomination warrants presentation of the award. The composition of the selection committee includes POC from various groups within the Council, e.g., caucuses, affiliate groups, and assemblies. This award may not be given each year. This award may be given to a deceased person. Only one recipient will be selected each year.

Current NCTE Executive Committee members are not eligible for this award. Recipients of this award are not eligible to receive any other Executive Committee approved awards in the same year, nor in the following year.

Eligibility:
People of color refers to historically underrepresented groups: African American, Black Diasporic communities, American Indians, Asian Americans, Latinx, and Pacific Islanders. The APCL Selection Committee will consider nominations from current NCTE members. The Executive Committee will approve the committee’s selection. It is customary that recipients of this award have a significant history of advancing POC in NCTE-affiliated venues and platforms and have held membership in NCTE for many years.

Nomination Requirements:

Required materials for submission are a cover letter or letter of nomination and a resume/CV.

Award Criteria:
The bold statements are the award criteria. The remaining statements are intended to describe some of the possibilities suggested in the criteria and are not intended to be rated individually. Please remember that different individuals have different levels of access to various opportunities (for example, small rural and urban vs. large rural and urban contexts).

Significant Contributions to NCTE

• Service contributions supporting NCTE and advancing individuals and communities of color (national, regional, local, and campus levels as well as conferences, affiliates, assemblies, caucuses, etc.)
  • Committees
  • Elected roles
  • Advocacy and program support
• Writing/presenting/editing/reviewing at NCTE-affiliated conferences/publication venues that contribute to literacy research, development, and innovative practice related to issues which disproportionately affect people of color

Development of Our Professional Community
Professional communities focused on activities/work/processes that promote and support the advancement of communities of color in the profession, contribute to promoting equity and dismantling racism in their community locally, nationally, and in NCTE, in literacy-related activities, and in public engagement. Literacy learning can be varied (e.g., global, national, regional, and local/campus)

• Teaching
  • Developing district/state/national curriculum
• Scholarship
  • (Co-)research with community members
  • (Co-)publish with community members
• Advocacy of policy and practices that influence and advance understanding of equity and antiracism
• Professional development
  • Offer professional development school/training for community members

Strong candidates tend to show strength in all areas.

Selection Committee:
The NCTE President appoints one Executive Committee member to serve as chair and four NCTE members-at-large from relevant NCTE groups.

Award Specifics:

• A plaque is given to the recipient during the NCTE Awards Session.
• The recipient will also receive:
  • A complimentary NCTE Annual Convention registration
  • Domestic round-trip coach airfare to the NCTE Annual Convention
  • One-night lodging (Friday) with meals

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Application Deadline: May 1

Please contact NCTEAwards@ncte.org with any questions.